In 2010 I was sitting at a folding table looking at a 21" Dell monitor with a WordPress template on screen. I needed to write the headline for my "hero" section, the part at the very top of the site that would determine whether prospects stuck around or bounced. My brain somehow felt both full and empty at the same time. Type, delete. Type something else, delete. Repeat until I'd talked myself into something that "felt right."
I couldn't tell you what I wrote that day, but it doesn't matter: I never won a client from that version of the site (at least, none that I know of).
Why? Because when I sat down to write content for that site, I "sourced" the content from the wrong place: my own mind. What did I have in my mind? My own caricature of my "ideal client" and some reference material from my competitors' websites. I thought I was being creative and a good marketer, but my target client didn't connect with my words at all.
I thought I was being creative and a good marketer, but my target client didn't connect with my words at all.
This is actually a pretty common problem for founders and operational executives. I recently completed an analysis of 42 real websites belonging to founders who signed up for the first two sessions of our course, Magnetic Brand. These people are coaches, therapists, photographers, designers, real estate agents, and consultants with real expertise in their craft.
Based on our analysis, we identified 7 common ways in which their websites were hiding their expertise:
Using tired adjectives like "passionate."
A designer with an in-demand specialty (she builds interiors for dental practices, a financially successful niche many designers don't touch) leads her site with "We're passionate about bringing spaces to life." "Passionate" is one of those marketing feel-good words you use when nobody has helped you communicate the values and experience that are driving you at your core. By the way, these values and experience are also likely what attracts your best clients to you. This is a problem made worse by the fact that she buried her niche deep into her site, which further obscured her ability to attract her ideal client.
Anchoring your brand's value and credibility on another brand
A golf instructor in our research has anchored his credibility on someone else's brand. His headline was "World Class Coaching." Sounds amazing. His proof? He's a part of a network composed of "more than half of the GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teachers." Maybe this is noteworthy to his peers and possibly serves as a kind of "social proof" for his ideal client, but it doesn't tell us what makes him remarkable compared to other coaches with similar credentials. More importantly, it doesn't speak to a specific client who has a specific problem that he will solve for them. He's a golf coach who is interchangeable with any other coach in that network (and maybe with any other coach, period). Incidentally, I saw this same problem all the time in the real estate industry as well: agents would anchor their brand on some other brand's designation of them as a "top producer" or "top [x%] agent."
Inconsistency in how the site talks about the brand's services or why the client should care
The hero at the top says one thing, the headlines in the lower sections say something similar but different, the "services" section doesn't seem to perfectly align with the promises made by any of the headlines. Based on experience, I'd bet none of what's on the website aligns strongly with the marketing materials the brand has elsewhere (flyers, brochures, ads, etc.). This inconsistency is an indicator that the founder feels like they have to start almost from scratch every time they need to write some sort of marketing content. It's a recipe for confusion and low conversion.
The services page is wordy and wandering
The home page tried to be the sun and light up the world, so now the services page has to try and give some context to what the brand actually does. Every service line requires a paragraph or more of explanation. Pricing and actual deliverables are obscure. Prospects get bored just looking at it. "I don't want to read all of this." Tab closed. Back to doomscrolling they go\! By the time a prospect lands on the services page, they should already know exactly what you do and be excited about why you're the person for them. All they want to know now is which package to choose, what they'll get from it, and how much it'll cost them.
The site is full of puffery
The brand describes itself as a "Collective" or "Group" or "Studio" when, in reality, it's a solopreneur offering a service. One founder in our set runs a "Strategy Group" that is, in fact, just her. Don't be ashamed of your size or credentials. People can tell pretty early when someone is trying to puff themselves up, and that's a quick way for a brand to undermine its credibility.
The About page reads like a résumé
Most "About" pages follow a formula: a brief biography, a list of past experience, and maybe some noteworthy accomplishments. Basically, it's just a résumé. Stop for a moment and think about the last time you referred someone. What did you do? You probably told a story of how the person you were referring solved a problem for you. You probably made claims like "they got my AC fixed the same day" or "they got me multiple serious buyers for my house" or "they got me an insanely good deal." Translate that insight into your own About page. Those kinds of stories, and the underlying values and competencies you have, are what should appear on your brand's About page. Yes, bio and experience matter, but your prospects need to hear storytelling that makes it clear you serve people just like them.
The site is clearly neglected or outdated
"New site coming soon." "Now booking fall 2023." One communications strategist we found, a professional whose whole job is messaging, has had "new site coming soon" up since 2012. She isn't careless. Probably her calendar is full and nobody asks her about her site. Typically, people in this situation ignore their site because it feels like work that they're not prepared to do and don't see value in doing. Perhaps she has enough referrals coming in that she thinks it doesn't matter. Okay, fine, but imagine how many more referrals she could have if she didn't hide her skills from the online world under a "coming soon" banner.
I want to be clear: I'm not judging these founders for the problems on their site.
I ran an escrow company that ended up processing more than $1.4B a year in real estate value by the time I exited, but if you'd asked me in the early days "why you?" I would have said "great service" and "cutting-edge technology." In other words, generic statements that didn't land. My site suffered many of the problems I'm describing above because I hadn't done the sort of deep work that eventually enabled our success.
It wasn't until I dug deeper and started to do important identity work, like defining our core values or asking our top clients why they worked with us instead of the competition, that I began to realize what made us attractive to our clients (and others like them). That work proved to be an unlock for me that helped me build the powerful partnerships that scaled the business.
